To Become an Angel
by bright snow
Summary: Written in Colette's POV, right before she goes into the Tower of Salvation. Even if something goes wrong at the Tower... it's worth it all if I save everyone. NEEDS SERIOUS EDITING, when will I get to that?
1. Prologue: To Reveal

**A/N: **This fanfic is from Colette's point of view just before she goes into the Tower of Salvation to become an Angel. There are slight spoilers if you haven't completed almost the entire first disk, but they shouldn't be too OMG WHY DID THAT HAPPEN?

It's short, but it is only the prologue, after all. :) I'd love to hear any comments you have, good or bad.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own anything from the game Tales of Symphonia. Namco does. :)

**EDIT:** 10/09/06 Very minor things.

**To Become an Angel**

**Prologue: To Reveal**

Dear Diary,

Today, today, today. Today is a very... special day. Heh... special. Today's entry will be my last entry. Today is the last time I see my friends. Today is the last day that I will see his smiling face, smiling for me, just for me.

Today is the last day I am Human.

Today is the day I become an Angel.

Today is the day that I die.

You have helped me through this more than you imagine... I have written my fears, my hopes, my dreams, and my deepest feelings within you. I'd cry- my heart is crying, right this second- but a Chosen isn't supposed to cry. An Angel isn't supposed to cry. An Angel doesn't have a heart to cry with.

But I don't care. I want to cry... cry my heart out, cry out all of the sins, cry out the pain of this beautiful world we live in and the one that's said to exist right next to us, side by side.

But I can't. I can't cry. I have to be strong for them. For the ones that have supported me all the way here to the end of my journey, for the ones that are awaiting the regeneration of the world. And I have to be especially strong for the ones that I will be destroying by completing the Ritual.

I want to cry.

---

But today is also a special day, just by being what it is.

Today is also Halloween, the day when children run around in make-shift costumes, going from door to door, begging for sweets. At least that was how it was back in Iselia. Today is supposed to be a happy day. I can just imagine some children dressing up as me, the Chosen, a hero, a hope. After all, I sent a letter back to Phaidra, my grandmother, to say that the Ritual is almost complete.

I'm still a child. I'm only sixteen. Some say that I've grown up, that I should act more like my age and like the Chosen I'm supposed to be.

I want everyone to be happy, but these selfish desires I have, they're weights, holding me down. I will never become an Angel like Remiel, detached from the world, able to reside without emotion, without pity.

I will never be like him because I will be a dead Angel.

---

Diary... unable to speak, unable to be able to feel anything, unable to do what you will... I am so like you. But I should feel happy, so happy that my friends will all be able to live in the regenerated world! I want them to be happy. Please, everyone, be happy for me, be happy enough for both of us. Oh Goddess Martel, please hear me... I pray that they will lead happy lives. I want them to have joy in their lives, even if their lives don't include me any longer.

---

My name is Colette Brunel. I am the Chosen of Regeneration. I am about to save the world. And I am about to die.


	2. Chapter One: To Protect

**A/N:** 10/09/06: A little editing on this chapter.

No, I am NOT trying to develop Colette/Kratos relationship. Colette just feels close to him. :P My excuse of why Kratos is so amazing when he's on his own -Cough spoiler- is near the end of this chapter. I've also taken some ideas about Tales of Symphonia from Lady Nephenee Ranulf's story _Thoughts on a Forbidden Romance_.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Once again, I'd like to remind everyone that I don't own anything in this story. Namco does. ;) Some ideas from Tales of Symphonia that are included in this ongoing story are the ideas of Lady Nephenee Ranulf. Not my ideas. :)

**To Become an Angel**

**Chapter one: To Protect**

There was a knock upon the wooden door. "Chosen. Are you ready?" The deep, relaxed voice of Kratos sang through the door. I am sprawled on my bed at the inn at Hima, alone, Diary and pen to the side of me. Everyone else is eating breakfast. I feel so guilty...but I shouldn't. I'm saving the world. Saving everyone. And destroying another, destroying millions more...

I'd reply, but I have no voice.

So I get up, tucking Diary and pen into a drawer next to the bed that I am on. I don't need them anymore. I am about to leave this world.

I open the door, but I don't even bother trying to shape my face into a smile that used to be so natural for me at the stone-faced mercenary. I think, for some reason, out of everyone here with me today, Genis, Raine, Noishe, Sheena, and even Lloyd, that Kratos understands what I'm going through the most. I don't know why. I've known everyone else much longer, but it's just this strange feeling.

I want to thank him for being so patient with me, for waiting outside the door for so long for me, and doing me all sorts of little favors that no one else caught on to. I can't, but I know he can see it in my eyes. How desperately I want to thank him, thank everyone...

"Chosen."

I feel like he struck me across the face. His expression doesn't change, but his dead eyes soften just the tiniest bit. But it was probably just the poor lighting.

I should explain. Kratos... Kratos is the mercenary that my grandmother hired to protect me. At a very high cost, too. He has this aura of cool around him, and I admire him so much.

Raine is my teacher, my schoolteacher from Iselia, the village where I was born and raised. She's very strict, and sometimes... I don't think I matter that much to her. Like I'm just some specimen she has under a microscope, like she's only here because she wants to be able to document the Angel transformation and see it herself. But I know she cares for me... right? She was the only teacher in the school that would stick up for me and punish the kids that did mean things to me just because I was different. But it never made a difference in the end. They all still think I'm stupid, just a big klutz, even though I'm the Chosen of Regeneration. But that was probably what started all the teasing anyway... the fact that I didn't know anything that they knew, the fact that I only knew things relating to the journey of Regeneration that I am almost at an end to. It makes sense, I guess, seeing that I would have been dying in just sixteen years.

Lloyd and Genis are tag-alongs, as I heard Kratos say, but Lloyd and I have been friends ever since he saw me getting shoved to the dirt during recess and saved me from everyone. He was my security blanket, but today I have to let him go, let him do what he wants to do. I know that I'm just being a burden to him. He doesn't have to tell me, even though he insists otherwise. I'm just a burden that he can move over and just keep going on in his road of life.

Suddenly, I feel like I'm overcome by sadness, so much that it feels like my heart is going to give itself out. I lurch forward, my hands reaching up to rest on the Cruxis crystal bound to my neck that marks me for who I am. It's usually so comforting, something to remind me of all the people that I'll be saving, but today, it just makes me feel worse. It makes me remember all of the people in Tethe'alla that I will be harming by completing the Ritual of the Chosen if my heart isn't pure enough. It makes me remember that this is the last day for me. It forces me to remember all of the things I still want to do that I'll never be able to manage to finish. It reminds me that I'm about to die. It hurts even more...

Through my hazed-over eyes, I see him rushing forward, cushioning what would have been a flat-out fall into a hard wooden floor (I probably would have made a hole) into a light embrace. At least, I'd think the floor was hard. It looks wooden enough, but since I can't feel anything anymore... I don't know.

"What's wrong, Chosen?" I hear a concerned voice say.

Of course. Kratos. It's his duty as a mercenary to see to my safety, that I'm okay. He's being paid to do it. He's not acting on instinct. He's acting upon order. The sadness builds. I'd throw up, but I haven't eaten food in months. I haven't needed to. I can survive on nothing. I am already so much Angel, but if this is what becoming an Angel means, I- no. No. I _will not_ let myself start down that dangerous path...

I try to force a smile upon my lips to signify that I'm fine, but I fail miserably by a long shot. It's nice to be embraced, even if it's by someone who doesn't even really know you. It's comforting to know that, once upon a time, a hug was something that signified that someone cared about you. But I have not actually felt one in so, so long... and now I never will.

I ease myself out of his arms and stand upon my own two legs, back against a nearby wall. My heart's still trying to wrench itself out of life's fragile grasp, but I won't allow that. I still have a task to complete, and I will _not_ allow myself to fail in this crucial time.

This heavy sadness... I think Kratos knows what I am going through. But then again... I'm probably just imagining it. Who am I trying to fool? But I still want to believe... so I take his gloved right hand. I see his arm muscles tighten, as if I were hurting him, and I see pain flash through his eyes in the merest of flickers with my sharp Angel eyes, but I won't stop this time. Call me weak, call me clingy, call me a failure... just call me something human.

"...may I talk to you?" he repeats softly after I finish tracing the letters out on his gloved palm. He knows that the slightest sounds grate my ears, so he tries to be quieter. "If that is your wish."

_Kratos,_ I trace upon his palm, _may I ask something personal?_

He lets a slightly gusty sigh. "If that is what you desire, Chosen."

I wince again. Kratos always refers to me as "the Chosen." _My name is Colette!_ I want to scream, but I know that he can't become attached to me. I'm just his charge, his _job_. So to him, I am the Chosen. Not Colette.

I have so many questions that I'd like to ask him, but I know that time is short and that writing takes such a painfully long time. _Have you ever been sad, so sad beyond reason?_ I spell out as quickly as I can on his hand without making it illegible.

He rakes his free hand through his mess of dark red hair, his dark brown eyes looking to something that I can't see behind me. He's sifting through his memories. "...yes," he finally answers, his facial features softening as he relives his memories.

I don't know how to reply. Why did I want to know in the first place? But somehow, knowing that Kratos understands how I feel... that is enough for me. I hold his hand in two of mine and bring it close to my still beating heart. I close my eyes, but I can still pick up with my Angel hearing him shifting his feet as he was pulled probably too-close-for-comfort towards me, his teeth gritting together in that subtle I-don't-want-you-to-know-that-I'm-in-pain-but-I-know-you-know-anyway. He probably thinks I'm weird, that I'm getting overly attached to him. And I think that I'm guilty for all of them.

Strange. I never noticed before, but whenever anything touches Kratos, even if it's a gentle brush, he always flinches away. I don't know why. It's odd to me, the fact that a living being wouldn't want to touched at all. Even dogs love to be petted and hugged.

I think of a short protection prayer, and I run over its familiar edges in my mind with only a few slight variations.

_O Holy one... take this man whose hand I hold into thy gentle wings' care. Please, I beg of you... protect him!_

I feel a strange wash of warm, comforting energy rushing out from somewhere inside of me, leaving me to run through his hand that I hold. I hear him blink with my over sensitive Angel hearing and I open my eyes. Kratos's face is one of slight confusion, and I smile at him, a kind, gentle smile that I don't even have to force myself to remember what it looks like. In my vision, I see the last traces of the mana of enormous pink feathered wings fade away, wrapped protectively around him. I drop his hand, still smiling from the warm feeling of being able to help someone I admire and walk towards where I know everyone else is waiting.Top of Form

Bottom of Form


	3. Chapter Two: To Thank

**A/N:** 10/09/06: Editing for all submitted chapters as of now. I hate my USB Mass Storage Device... erased ALL of my in-progress fics.

**Disclaimer:** Once again, I'd like to thank Kasan Soulblade, Lady Nephenee Ranulf, and others for writing such great fanfictions and inspiring me.

**To Become an Angel**

**Chapter two: To Thank**

My over-sensitive ears pick up a door opening and closing gently. Probably Kratos, making sure we didn't accidentally leave anything behind in the room we stayed in overnight. I also hear a slight bickering match outside marked with random howls and whines. _Probably Lloyd and Genis discussing something about Noishe_, I guess, and when I'm outside, I find that I'm only half right.

"I _told_ you, Genis!" Lloyd hisses in what I guess he thinks is a whisper. "It's Halloween, and it's also Colette's last day as a Human! I want it to be special for her, so that she can have nice memories of her time with us when she's an Angel." Noishe howls firmly in agreement.

"Okay, I get your point Lloyd, like I said _how many times_?" The young mage rolls his eyes in that ever-infuriating way. "But what I'm asking is what we're going to do! She's going to be outside in a couple minutes, and that's only because we begged Kratos to distract-"

"We didn't _beg_," scoffs Lloyd. He's always so sensitive when it comes to the subject of Kratos. I think it's because everything that Kratos does is the opposite of what Lloyd would do, but I wish they could just get along... "We asked him, and he agreed. End of story. Okay. So what-"

Genis finally notices me walking out of the inn. "Oh, hi Colette!" he announces loudly to get Lloyd's attention (whose back was turned to me at the moment), his high pitched voice amplified several times its normal noise. To my hearing, he's practically screaming in my ear, and I want to cringe, but I know that would hurt his feelings, so I bear it, his voice echoing around in my head.

I respond with a slightly fake cheerful smile and wave.

Lloyd whips around. "Uh, hey Colette!" He scratches the back of his head, a sign of embarrassment for him. I see Raine discreetly roll her eyes in exasperation.

Right then, Kratos appears behind me. He eyes me expressionlessly. "Chosen, did you leave something behind in the room?"

My blood probably ran cold. _Did he read it?_ I think, slightly panicked. I shake my head vigorously, trying to make myself look natural.

"Alright then," Raine says calmly in her cool voice. "It we're all ready, I'd like to get moving."

"Yeah, let's get this over with," Ms. Sheena says sharply. She's probably thinking of all the people in... Tethe'alla, right? that she would have to face after she got back. I feel a shiver run through my body. I can imagine just what they'd think of her. _Failure._ She'd be just like me if I don't manage to complete the Ritual correctly, or if I'm not pure enough.

_Failure._ I hate that word. I hate it, I hate it so much. **_You failure! _**What right do you people have to judge? What right do you people **_have_**?

I fell into line. Raine was leading (and by the way she was practically scrambling like a beetle up the rocky crags, I would say she was excited, to say the least, to inspect the Dragons we were going to ride on to the Tower), and then it was me, Kratos right behind, Sheena some distance away, and Genis and Lloyd lagging far behind, whispering. I couldn't hear what they were saying -the wind was carrying their voices away from me- but I was glad I couldn't. If they were whispering, they obviously didn't want anyone else to hear, and that includes me. I felt a little tear rip in my sewn-back-together heart, but I dismiss it as just jealousy. _Lloyd's allowed to have other friends besides me,_ I chide to myself. _And he should be making new friends now so he can... replace me._ I would have swallowed down hard, but there was nothing in my mouth that could be swallowed. So I gulp down some air and felt slightly nauseous.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden speed-up in the footsteps behind me. I hear the slight disapproving grunt of Kratos that was so quiet it was almost inaudible to even my ears.

"Hey, Colette, how're you feeling?" Ms. Sheena inquires once she was walking at about the same speed as me, turning her head sideways to look at me curiously.

I flash a big grin. It feels so wrong on my face, but I don't want anyone to worry about me. I'm fine. I want them to take care of themselves.

Maybe I overdid it on the brightness on the smile. Ms. Sheena didn't seem very convinced at all. In fact, she looks even more suspicious than she was before. Whoops...

"Uh huh," she said, eyeing me with doubt. Then she lowers her voice to barely clear of breathing for normal hearing, a whisper to mine. "You don't have to act like that in front of me. How are you- really?" Sheena watches the ground, making sure she didn't step into some weird spiky plant or anything. Who knew what grew here in this parched earth...

I wipe the fake smile off my face. She's amazing- she can sense what's really inside of me. Lloyd is a tiny bit easier to fool... but I feel like I owe her for all of the bad things that happened to her when she was still trying to assassinate me, so I take her hand and start tracing letters on her gloved hand. Strange. Gloved, just like Kratos. But she didn't flinch away like he did, so I figure it's okay.

I trace but a single word on her palm. _Scared,_ but then I realize too late how stupid and un-Chosen like that is. I flash another big smile at her, hoping that I can heal what damage I've done.

Ms. Sheena smiles sadly and waves away my smile. I know that she knows that we both know that it's fake. Out of nowhere, she hugs me and pulls me towards her with pure sisterly love. It amazes me; we started out as enemies, with her mission to put me out of action, but in this short time... I'm making so many friends. And that makes me feel so lucky. "I'm so sorry," she whispers into my back, waveryness engulfing her usual precise, crisp-cut voice. "You don't deserve this. No one should have to go through this, knowing from when they're born that they're gonna die." I squeeze her back and draw back from her embrace, gratitude lighting my eyes. I shake my head slowly to show that I'm okay; this little moment has made me happier than I thought I could be at this moment. It's a little weird for me; I've never had a big sister, or even a big sister figure, and then here's Ms. Shee- no, _Sheena_. I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful life and friends.

I hear someone coughing loudly from behind me. Kratos. I blink, and then realize that we had stopped walking because we have reached the peak. I hear Raine going on full-blast in "Ruin Mode" and I laugh in my mind. I instinctively wipe at my eyes even though there are no tears there and I see Big Sister Sheena turning away to hide her face when Lloyd and Genis finally catch up, sadness pulling at their features.

My hand snakes out and grabs Sheena's. She jumps, but feels my finger conjuring up words as fast as I can on her palm. _Thanks Big Sis-_

I run out of time before I can finish the word, but I know I've got the message across. I see her mouth quirk up through her fringe of black silky hair

"Um, Colette?" said Genis slightly awkwardly, eyes downcast. "Lloyd and I wanted to do something special for you because it was Halloween and your last day and all, but..."

"We just couldn't...think of anything," Lloyd continued, looking so very guilty. "I mean, candy is...kind of out of the question, and we can't really throw a party, and I guess I shoulda made something for you, and-" I shake my head and cut him off, smiling, and walk towards my two bestest friends. I take up Lloyd's hand and spell out that it was okay. _Thank you so much for everything._ I hear the familiar _drop drop _of falling liquid and I'm careful not to look at the ground to see his tears. I pull both of them into a quick hug and then walk over to where Kratos was surveying everything with a careful eye that misses nothing. I nod at him, determined not to let my eyes show what I'm feeling inside.

_I'm ready._


	4. Chapter Three: To Fly and To Fall

**A/N:** If you find any errors in grammar or anything, please tell me. :)

Hearts and stars to all who reviewed! Thanks for taking the time for me, especially ShadowofUndine who's editing the Prologue for me.

A hint of spoiler of who Kratos is is included in this chapter if you can connect the dots. :)

Eh, I don't really like this chapter... sort of drab and too quick.

**Disclaimer:** Namco owns Tales of Symphonia. Special thanks go out to Kasan Soulblade, Lady Nephenee Ranulf, Lil-Samuu, and many, many others for creating their own fan fictions whose ideas I am _borrowing_. I do not own them.

**EDIT:** 10/09/06: Just a little here and there.

**To Become an Angel**

**Chapter three: To Fly... and to Fall**

I used to hope that I could see a Dragon, and even (maybe!) ride one.

I think I've changed my mind.

After either fighting or escaping from a lot of mean lizards that wanted us for lunch and flying for a grand total of 6 seconds on a Dragon, I really, really think I've changed my mind.

The poor little Dragon we were riding on really didn't know how to fly. It was like the little thing had been locked in a cage for most of her life and this was the first time she had tried to fling herself off of a cliff in the hopes that she could fly.

I think I can see that.

Monifa, meaning 'luck,' suddenly decided to take a nosedive with a loud squeal that shouldn't ever be heard with Angel Hearing. My mouth gaped open upon instinct but the expected scream didn't come out. I tightened my arms' grip around Kratos's throat to choking and am instantly glad I did as I lose my seat on the Dragon, Kratos the only thing keeping me from falling. I hear the panicked yells of the ones still on the cliff and in a sudden thought I remember my wings, itching like crazy to burst out of the depths of my body. I instantly let go of him and Kratos is so preoccupied with trying to urge the Dragon into flight that he doesn't notice until it's past time when he can grab me. I'm hurtling downwards, slower than the Dragon and her rider, but still falling _really _fast.

_Wings_, I somehow manage into my terror-gripped mind, _it's now or never!_ The poor excuse of a prayer somehow got through and I instantly feel the effects. Wings break out of my skin in a brilliant flash of pink light and warm mana; I feel like it should hurt me, like it's dragging my insides out, but I don't feel any pain. I am thankful.

My wings are out, but what difference does it make? I'm still rocketing down; if I pull my wings from flat out against my body, they'll be ripped out! The wings ignore my will, spread feathers out, and beat feebly against the winds in a pathetic effort to save me. I feel the strain on the bones connecting my wings to my body and it feels like the pressure's going to snap them off!

_Is this the way things are going to end?_ I close my eyes and accept the wind's caress as I fall out of sight of Lloyd, Sheena, Genis, and Raine. It seems like the entire world is moving in slow motion for me right now, slowing down, just for me... I hear heavy, frantic wing beats struggling against a wind, but I know that it's too late for even a Dragon who just learned what wings are for to reach me. For some reason, I hear a curse; an enormous flash of cold, _cutting_ mana that's much older and sharper then my own wings' mana; then a speeding noise coming straight towards me. I wonder if it's me hitting the ground, but I don't-

What?

...What happened?

I open my tightly closed eyes.

_I'm... not falling anymore?_ I blink and rub at my eyes to be sure that I'm not just dreaming. I still-

I'm jolted as I'm swung haphazardly through nothing by my religious garb and onto something hard and scaly _...Monifa?_ I scoot forward, trying not to grab too many of my savior's scales off her neck. I feel the mana of something right behind me, and I pray it's something friendly and not a monster trying to kill me before turning around to see Kratos's tired face.

As Monifa takes us higher, circling on the warm air towards my friends, Kratos asks quite calmly if I'm alright. I turn around again and get both a mouthful and a faceful of my long hair. I attempt to shake out my locks from my face (no such luck) and nod through them so that he at least knows that I'm okay. I don't know what happened, but it included Kratos and Monifa and he's not even breathing irregularly like Monifa is, though he does look dead tired. And I mean really, really tired.

I finally gain enough courage to unlatch a hand from Monifa's neck to throw back my hair with my arm and look at Kratos pointedly to ask if _he_ was okay.

He didn't get the hint and I barely had time to lunge for his hand before he slipped off of Monifa. I was in the most awkward position; the upper part of my body hanging off of a small Dragon, holding onto a man much heavier than I was, my feet latched around where Monifa's wings came out of her body. She snorts her displeasure, but there isn't anything else I could hold on to...

"Colette!" shouts Lloyd, breaking into my delicate balance of awareness, "Are you-" He stops in mid-sentence, probably realizing that I couldn't spare enough concentration to listen.

Monifa lands back onto safe ground, and I could tell that she was a little unhappy that she couldn't be flying in the sky instead. _Thank you, Goddess Martel, for blessing me with an understanding Dragon,_ thankful it wasn't a hotheaded one that took nothing from **nobody**.

"Monifa!" The Dragon Man came tearing across the rocks and slams into Monifa with what I think was a hug. "Oh, I was so worried about you, my little pet!" The almost-grown Dragon made a low grumbling noise (I think it was purring for a Dragon) and I fell off of her, trying not to land into Kratos.

I was really lucky. I land facedown instead in a scruff of wild scrub, strangely spiky...

"_Colette!_" Sheena, Lloyd, and Genis call out in unison as they ran towards me (I could tell because the ground was vibrating with their footfalls). I blink, and am a little startled to find myself in this... plant thing. I raise myself slowly by my arms and knees and I see that Kratos had somehow made it down from Monifa. But then I hear the beginning of a conversation of a Raine lecturing...

"...and I can't believe that even though you were charged with her life and you were _paid_ for it that you still almost had her die, you-"

Uh-oh... Raine's in teacher-lecture mode. I instantly speed up my recovery, rising unsteadily onto my legs. I straighten out my dress and dust off some of the plant's seeds that were clinging to my clothes and turn to where Kratos and Raine were-

"Colette! Are you okay?" Lloyd's head pops into my line of vision, flanked by the worried faces of Sheena and Genis. I blink and it takes me a second to get through my jumbled brain. I shake my head to show that I'm not hurt, and then realize that I probably should have nodded to show that I was fine...

Sheena shakes her own head vigorously. "I mean, we couldn't see anything, but you were flung off that Dragon over there," she turns her head and glares venomously at Monifa before turning back to me, "and then Genis said that there was some weird mana that was kind of like yours' but not really, and then-"

I hold up my hands in quiet protest. Sheena's talking so fast that it's hard to understand her.

"But whatever!" Genis cut in. "We're just happy you're safe. Right? You're okay, right?"

I inspect myself- I can't feel pain, so I have to check by sight- and I seem to be fine. I nod, and ungraciously excuse myself. I know they feel like I just ignored them, but I need to tell Raine that it's okay, that I'm okay.

"...you say that she's just your job! Well, I'd like to see you _doing_ your job!" My teacher finally stops, breathing heavily, hands on her hips, glaring up to the back of Kratos's head. "At least listen to me!" she flares.

I latch onto the Professor's arm. I know she's worried about me and she's just expressing what she's feeling the only way she knows, but still. She turns to look at me impatiently. "What is it, Colette?"

I try to remember what 'sad' feels like and shape it into my expression. I only achieve minor sadness, though that's good enough for me. I look up at Raine and wait for her reaction.

She took it better than I thought she would. The Professor sighs and turns her back on Kratos, busying herself instead with examining Monifa and unleashing her fury on the Dragon Man for...animal cruelty or something. I walk up to Kratos and crane my neck to look up at his face to make sure he's okay. He definitely looks tired, but at least he isn't going to pass out.

"Uh... hey, Kratos?" asks Lloyd, walking up to where the two of us were standing. The older swordsman turns to look at him and fixes his attention on Lloyd.

"Yes?"

"What... happened?"

"..."

Lloyd, irritated that Kratos ignored him, turns to me. Instead of answering by way of writing on his hand (because I really don't know), I shrug and then point urgently at the thin line in the distance that was the Tower of Salvation.

"Oh yeah, we still have to go to the Tower of Salvation..." I nod. "Well, if Kratos-"

"I'll be alright," interjects said mercenary.

Lloyd rolls his eyes, I roll mine, and I can see Genis rolling his if he were here. "No, seriously, look at yourself! You're shaking all over, you're too pale, and you look like you're going to faint on us. Maybe we should stay an extra-"

"I'm _fine_," he snaps. Kratos turns and walks off towards where the rest of the group was with a snap of his cape.

"'I'm _fine,_'" Lloyd mimics softly to me with an ugly face. "Well excuuuuse me for caring, O Mighty One."

I could have sworn that Kratos's ear twitched like he heard the comment. But he was so far away now and only I could have heard the comment... but Kratos isn't an Angel. He's a Human, so... I don't know. I'm probably just imagining things anyway, heheh.

So after Raine applied a little First Aid on Kratos, we were all set to go. Kratos was going to ride on Monifa with me, Genis was going to ride with Raine on a Dragon with an evil gleam in his eye (I think Sheena and Raine would have torn each other apart if they were on the same Dragon), and Lloyd was going to ride with Sheena on a shrunken, drab looking one. I have to admit that I'm a little jealous of Sheena because she gets to ride with Lloyd, but it doesn't matter. I mean, it's only a ride on a Dragon...

And so we set off again for the Tower of Salvation.


End file.
